ROS L I N, H A W T H O R N D EN,
AND THE
VALE OF T H E ESK.
BY FLORA MASSON.
‘ SWEET are the paths, 0 passing sweet,
O’er airy steep, thro’ copsewood deep,
By Esk’s fair streams that run,
Impervious to the sun ;
From that fair dome where suit is paid
By blast of bugle free,
To Auchendinny’s hazel shade,
And haunted Woodhouselee.
Who knows not Melville’s beechy grove,
Dalkeith, which all the virtues love,
And Roslin’s rocky glen,
And classic Hawthornden 7’
So wrote Scott of the Esk; and he maintained that no river in Scotland
could boast such a varied succession of interesting objects, as well as of the
most romantic and beautiful scenery,’ In his boyhood he delighted to ramble
along its banks, The happy summers of his early married life were spent in
a cottage at Lasswade; and more than once he has celebrated the little river
in song. His Gray Brother, Ca&ow Casfle, and the story of Fair Rosabelle
in the f i y offhe Last MinsfreA are all legends of the Vale of the Esk.
Much of its romantic and beautiful scenery remains to this day. True, the
mills along its course have discoloured its waters, and here and there we come
upon a chimney-stalk discreetly nestled among trees ; but the Vale of the Esk
remains ;-thickly-wooded, rich in associations, dotted with ruins, bordered by
1 See the Gray B.o&r, and Note to Appendix.
